Scottish chief upbeat about future

Updated: Monday, 12 Mar 2012 19:38

Scottish Rugby Union chief executive Mark Dodson insists the national team are on the right track despite facing another wooden spoon decider against Italy.

Scotland suffered their fourth defeat of the RBS 6 Nations with a 32-14 loss against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

The defeat means head coach Andy Robinson will be unable to improve on last year's record and Scotland face a tough challenge to avoid bottom place in Rome on Saturday.

Robinson has a contract until 2015 and is not thought to be under threat over his position, although defeat against Italy could prompt some soul-searching in the former England coach.

Dodson believes there have been positive signs in the emergence of young talent such as Lee Jones and Stuart Hogg, and an improvement in the style of play.

Dodson told Press Association Sport: "We have a performance review at the end of every tournament, this one will be no different.

"We have got to put all the information into the basket, not just the points on the board.

"Clearly we will be going hell for leather for a win in Italy, but when you look at the players we have brought through this year, the style of play we have been exhibiting, all of that will go into the mix and we'll talk to Andy about it at the end of the tournament.

"But as far as we're concerned we are still very, very optimistic about what we can achieve here."

Scotland have now lost six games in a row stretching back to the World Cup, when they failed to reach the last eight.

"There is no getting away from the fact that we are not winning games," Dodson said. "I'm not going to walk away from that.

"But when you look at the kind of quality of rugby we're playing, look at the kind of people we're bringing through, this is good news for the future.

"We're on a journey here, this is not going to happen in a day.

"There will be snakes and ladders on the way. We went down a snake on Saturday but we will go up some ladders along the line."